Category Archives: Research

On 23 Oct, CACS Director Napisa Waitoolkiat and Prof. Katsuyuki Takahashi travelled to Tokyo to take part in an lnternational Grant Ceremony from The Toyota Foundation for a comparison study of civil-military relations in the peace processes of Thailand’s Deep South and Indonesia’s Aceh. The hard work on the project begins soon!

CACS has gratefully received generous support from the Toyota Foundation to conduct a comparative study of civil-military relations in the peace processes in both Thailand’s Deep South and Indonesia’s semi-autonomous Aceh province. Focusing on the multi-cultural and multi-generational issues in both cases, CACS hopes that our research can help open possible new avenues to sustainable…

CACS’s research team of Paul Chambers and Napisa Waitoolkiat have come together to edit this volume of seven studies of ‘khaki capital’—military domination of budgets, economy, and political power—throughout Southeast Asia: in Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, the Philippines and Indonesia. Each chapter analyses the evolution of khaki capital in the case country; the role…

Atit Pongpanit explores how the 2013 film “Phi Mak Phra Kanong”—based on a well-known and oft-retold Thai legend—ignores the traditional ending of the tale where the living and the dead are definitively separated. In this film, the hero and heroine question, challenge, and resist norms of sexuality and the power of religion. The film “queers” the contemporary…

CACS professor Paul Chambers’ exploration of foreign influence and penetration into the “CMLV” states (Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam) examines the role of a variety of state actors from near and far attempting to leverage the gap between the four CMLV nations and their ASEAN partners to extend their own influence—varying from Singapore and Thailand to…

Myanmar Watch: The Road to Election 2015 Chuthaporn Suntayakorn Dr. Piratorn Punyaratabandhu Dr. Napisa Waitoolkiat Photo courtesy of oxlaey.com Myanmar will hold its general elections on 8th November 2015. The November general elections will mark a significant step for Myanmar’s democratization given that they are the first open elections in almost three decades since the…

Will the AEC mean more opportunity or the end of the line for regional players? ASEAN enterprise is full of risk and reward for companies as the field opens to both players from neighboring ASEAN states and two towering behemoths—India and China. CACS adjunct professor, Dr Masato Abe provides this essay on his research, readings, and analysis of the future…

As Japan looks towards an ASEAN+3 future of connectivity, Dr Takahashi examined the historical background of Japan’s economic and political connections to Southeast Asia—and what lessons should be learned from them. Published (in Thai) in “Indochina Junction,” journal of the Department of History of Naresuan University.